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Etienne Cheynet

Etienne Cheynet

Affiliation

E-mail
etienne.cheynet@uib.no
Visitor address
Allégaten 55, 4th floor
5007 Bergen
Room: 485
Postal address
P.O. Box 7803
NO-5020 Bergen
Norway

Etienne Cheynet

Affiliation

Research groups

Research

Boundary layer meteorology: 

  • Characterization of the coherence of turbulence above the sea and in Norwegian fjords.
  • Influence of the topography on the mean and turbulent flow characteristics.
  • Synthetic turbulence generation in the atmospheric surface layer.
  • Influence of the blocking by the surface on the spectral characteristics of turbulence.

Wind engineering: 

  •  Turbulent wind load modelling on long-span bridges.
  • Data-driven modelling for structural dynamics.
  • Full-scale vibration analysis.

Lidar remote sensing of wind: 

  • Can scanning Doppler wind lidars measure turbulence?.
  • Study of the flow around bridges with short-range and long-range wind lidar instruments.
Teaching

Courses

Publications
2026
2025
2023
2022
2018
2019
2015
2016
2024
2021
2020
2017
2014
2012

See a complete overview of publications in NVA.

Projects

BEL-FLOAT (2023-2026): The BEL-Float project focuses on developing Belgium's expertise in floating wind technology through academic innovation. The project aims to prepare new researchers with the necessary skills for floating wind energy and to strengthen the Belgian-Norwegian partnership in offshore wind.

ImpactWind SouthWest (2022-2027): ImpactWind SouthWest is a project led by NORCE, aiming to transform offshore wind development through collaboration, an open database, a research program, and educational initiatives. It aims to make the licensing process for Norwegian offshore wind faster, contributing to sustainable energy and job creation in Norway

 

LOWT (2021-2025): Large Offshore Wind Turbines (LOWT):structural design accounting for non-neutral wind conditions

This project will develop new knowledge and models to improve the design basis for large floating wind turbines (LOWT)(>12MW) in freewind and wake conditions. Observations from Hywind Scotland have shown the thermal stratification of the atmosphere can substantially affect the structural response of a wind turbine to the incoming turbulent flow. The first objective is to use wind data from several offshore sites to characterise the wind field in non-neutral atmospheric conditions. The project will use high-frequency wind data combined with a brand new remote sensing dataset (COTUR). In the COTUR campaign the incoming flow over the ocean was recorded, both within and above the surface layer, thus providing new insight on the applicability surface-layer scaling to model the turbulent wind loads on LOWT. This unique dataset will be analysed for the first time to the to indicate whether the turbulence models used in the standards, which mainly relies on surface-layer scaling, are appropriate or not. The final output will be to recommend suitable wind and coherence model for in non-neutral conditions as input to free wind aeroelastic simulations and DWM models offshore. The second objective is to validate the simulated wind turbine response using full scale data from offshore wind farms (Alpha Ventus, Sheringham Shoal, and Zefyros/Hywind Demo). The validated simulation tools will then be used to quantify the effect of non-neutral atmospheric conditions on future LOWT (>12MW) to ensure safe and cost-effective design in the next generation of offshore wind farms in Norway and beyond. The final focus of the project is wake simulations of LOWT in non-neutral conditions using DWM model. High-fidelity CFD simulations will be used to include variable velocity shear in the DWM method and validate the wake meandering in non-neutral conditions. The non-neutral wind spectra and coherence from the data analysis work will be used as input for the DWM simulations.

 

COTUR (2018-2020): Measuring coherence and turbulence with lidars (COTUR)

The size of offshore wind turbines has increased significantly since the installation of the world’s first commercial offshore wind turbine at Vindeby in 1991. The average offshore wind turbine capacity has increased from 500 kW in the 1990s to 3 MW by the end of 2010. Today, the largest offshore wind turbines have a rated power of 9 MW and a rotor diameter of 164 meters. Large, floating wind turbines pose new challenges compared to bottom-fixed turbines. In particular, the Hywind Scotland wind farm posed new challenges with respect to turbulence and coherence. There is a need for a better understanding of the horizontal coherence over large rotors offshore, but few measurements are available for such analyses. The main objective of the project is to improve the understanding of offshore wind coherence through measurements with lidars. The measurements will form a new, unique and highly relevant dataset for future offshore wind research. The collected data and corresponding meta-data will be stored in a database for later analysis.

Supervision

PhD Supervision

Main supervision:

  • Yuanchen Wan (UiB, 2024– ): Wind loading on parabolic solar collector arrays

Co-supervision:

  • Frederike Möller (2025– ): Characterization of turbulence for large wind turbines using lidar and drone-based sonic anemometry
  • Rebeca Marini (2023– ): Full-scale wind turbine performance analysis
  • Shokoufeh Malekmohammadi (2021– ): Ship-based wind lidar measurements for offshore wind energy research
  • Mauro Ghirardelli (GFI/UiB, 2021–2024): Development and test of a drone-based sonic anemometer system
  • Rieska Putri (UiS, 2018–2022): Influence of non-neutral atmospheric stratification on the wind-induced response of an offshore wind turbine
  • Nicolò Daniotti (UiS, 2018–2022): Full-scale investigation of the aerodynamic properties of a suspension bridge

Master’s Supervision

Main supervision:

  • 2025
    • Lenny Hucher (UiB): Applicability of WindNinja for microscale flow simulation in Norwegian fjords
    • Zuhir Jamaleh (UiB): Height-dependent coherence for offshore wind turbine dynamics
    • Mathilde Bøkevoll (UiB): Full-scale analysis of the flow downstream of a parabolic solar collector array
  • 2024
    • Vebjørn Thunshelle (UiB): A comparative analysis of perceived and recorded climate change in Greenland
    • Lingdi Wang (UiB): Hywind Tampen Revisited: Alternative layout to address spatial competition with the fishing industry
    • Hedda Wallestad (UiB, 2023–2024): Wind farm layout assessment in Sørlige Nordsjø II using the FLORIS framework and the NORA3 database
    • Mali Ones (UiB, 2023–2024): The potential of a vertically-pointing scanning wind lidar to characterize turbulence
    • Elias Villamil Fernandez (UiB, 2023–2024): Offshore wind development suitability in NVE’s 20 proposed Norwegian coastal areas
  • 2023
    • Paulius Kavaliauskas (UiB, 2022–2023): Can a dual pulsed lidar system measure the lateral coherence of turbulence?

Co-supervision:

  • 2025
    • Bendik Voldseth (UiB): Investigation of extreme weather events for insurance risk assessment of wind farms
    • Dehui Wang (UiB): TBD
  • 2024
    • Frida Krågebakk (UiB): Complementarity of wind and solar energy in Southern Norway
  • 2023
    • Fahim Masud Ahmed (UiB, 2022–2023): Low-level jet height’s impact on wind turbine loads: A case study
  • 2019
    • Julie-Ann Marie Knight (UiS, 2018–2019): The influence of an unstable turbulent wind spectrum on the loads and motions on a floating offshore wind turbine
Qualifications

Link to CV: here (external link)

Education

  • 2013–2016: PhD, University of Stavanger (UiS), Stavanger, Norway.
  • 2009–2012: MSc, École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d’Aérotechnique (ISAE-ENSMA), Futuroscope technopole, France

Employment record

  • 2019-present: Post-doctoral researcher, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
  • 2016-2019: Post-doctoral researcher, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway.
  • 2013-2016: PhD student, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway